HORROR STORIES

The Shame of Florida: Alimony Horror Stories from the Sunshine State

UPDATE:
Florida Alimony Reform supports identical House and Senate Bills (HB 549 and SB 748) that are intended to correct the injustices outlined in this document. Please express your support of these bills when you contact your legislators.

Thanks for your interest in reading this collection of 33 "horror stories" from Florida’s family courts. You or someone you know might have a horror story from the court. Or you might be new to this dark, disturbing, and thoroughly out-of-date corner of the judicial system.

Please note: The horror stories appear without names on them for legal reasons. Because of permanent alimony, all of these cases are ongoing legal matters and people can be taken back to court at any time. Public disclosures can harm the parties. If you would like verification of any of these cases, please contact the FAR office by phone or email.

Pass this document on to members of the media, the legislature, and anyone you know who is getting married or divorced in Florida. (Or send them the link to the Horror Stories on our website.) And please join us in our efforts to update and overhaul these laws. There is real interest in the issue in the State Capitol, but legislators must feel pressure from their constituents and the media before they will act. They need to hear from you!

Florida’s lifetime alimony laws are among the most draconian and out-of-date in the country. While divorces are technically "no-fault," they reflect attitudes and realities from America in the 1950s, when a divorcing husband was the sole breadwinner and was considered "the bad

We believe that in some marriages, alimony is necessary for the transition period from married to single, while the lower-earner charts a course to independence. But, as these horror stories show, routine awards of lifetime alimony – all too common in Florida courts – are destructive to the entire familyguy" – and the wife considered "the helpless victim." Those days are long gone, but the antiquated alimony laws and attitudes linger.

Florida’s alimony laws were updated in 2010 in limited ways. This collection of "horror stories" from the state’s lifetime alimony payers is crucial testimony in the case for further updating Florida’s laws. Almost all of these divorces were finalized before the new laws came into effect in July 2010. Several divorces that were decided under the new law reveal the ongoing problems with the new law, and the weight of the outdated law and outdated attitudes on family court decisions.

Massachusetts is on the verge of radically updating its alimony laws, and it will allow individuals whose divorces were decided prior to the law to revisit their judgments, to guarantee that everyone is treated equally under the law. By contrast, Florida’s new law does not permit any of these lifetime payers the right to petition the court to revisit their settlements. Thus, the injustices and irrational rulings live on – relics of laws that everyone agrees are antiquated and unfair.

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Nearly all of these 33 "horror stories" were provided by our members and have been condensed and edited for space. One case comes from an appellate court decision. Because these are ongoing legal matters, we publish them with no full names; initials where possible; or anonymously. We provide the name of the county where the divorce took place and the year, where available. While these are statewide laws, the outcomes vary greatly from county to county.

Please contact our office for more information or to confirm the facts of these cases.

1. Man pays ex-wife 50 percent of his income in alimony, while ex-wife has lived with boyfriend for 7 years. They wear wedding rings; are each other’s beneficiary in case of death. Ex-husband must keep $1 million life insurance policy. His modification denied in 2006.

"My father-in-law just went through this… His ex-wife has been living with someone for 7 years. They wear rings on their wedding fingers. When the boyfriend was in the hospital, he listed her on the hospital records as his wife, they are each other’s beneficiary in case of death, and the list goes on.

"My father-in-law pays her $3000 per month – 50 percent of his income. In the divorce, she received 100 percent of his retirement ($150,000), which she has spent, and is the sole beneficiary of his $1 million life insurance policy, even though he has remarried. After her son turned 18 and the child support ended, she took him back to court and had the child support rolled into alimony.

"She would not settle for a reduction of alimony, so based on F.S. 61. 14 [the new cohabitation law], they went to court. My husband and his brother testified. We watch him struggle while she goes on extravagant vacations (California, Vegas, and a 5-day cruise – all in 4 months). She had a brand-new home built and then remodeled. Her boyfriend’s Crown Victoria is paid for. She makes $11 per hour working 25-30 hours a week. The boyfriend makes $30,000. The ruling went to the ex-wife. So he is still paying $3000 a month and now he is responsible for her attorney’s fees, $10,000. This poor man is supporting not only his ex-wife but her boyfriend, and the courts are allowing it."

Comments

I stand to lose 1/2 my military retirement pay to my husband when we divorce on top of whatever else the judge decides. Five years of separation and he holds that over my head while he enjoys living off another woman. Please someone tell me this reform includes the USAFSPA. I wouldn’t mind sharing my retirement if it was to go to someone with morals and ambition, but this gent is only looking for the easy life given to him by someone else. Reform is a must!!!

I’ve been paying “permanent periodic alimony” of $3500/month since 1988 PLUS $270/month for alimony life insurance so that if I die, she still gets her $3500/month! Tried twice to get it modified, but all I did was to squander a retainer only to be told that nothing could be done without more retainer. I want to retire but can’t.

Primary Legislative Goals

• Support self-sufficiency and independence for the lower-earning spouse through alimony payments that continue during a transition period, which lasts more than a decade in long-term marriages;

• Maintain appropriate judicial discretion to fairly judge unique circumstances where the lower-earning spouse is physically or mentally unable to work to gain self-sufficiency, continuing alimony payments in special cases, and only until no longer needed;

• End lifelong alimony dependency, allowing each party of the divorce to move-on with independent lives;
• Obtain retirement rights for alimony payers, the same rights enjoyed by all other citizens;

• Protect second spouses from current case law, which may allow judges to use second spouses income and assets and then force the alimony payer to pay an increased amount of alimony to a first spouse based now on a new “family income,” or face jail.

• End expensive legal battles over vague alimony laws and interpretations; and

• Provide equal and consistent treatment, where the outcome of a alimony case is not decided by the Russian Roulette selection of the family court judge.

WHAT WE BELIEVE REGARDING ALIMONY REFORM

To achieve a constitutionally acceptable reform of alimony laws, Florida Alimony Reform believes that the process of dissolution is placing undue burdens on Floridians who simply wish to change their fundamental constitutional right of association and exercise their fundamental constitutional right of privacy by altering their marital status when they dissolve their marriage. Accordingly:
(1). Floridians must be able to end their marriage with a well defined goal of minimal intrusion by the state and that the intrusion has a well defined and reasonable time limit.

(2). Alimony statutes must be reformed to be duration limited so that they are in accordance with other statute mandated entitlements such as child support, welfare, and unemployment compensation.

(3). There will be a rubuttable presumption that the standard of living after a divorce will be lower than what was had during the marriage to ensure both parties receive equal protection under the law.

(4). That an equitable division of assets occur with a propensity to achieve as close to a 50/50 distribution of all marital assets and liabilities as possible, apart from any transitional alimony award, unless exceptional circumstances occur.

(5). Alimony must not be calculated or used to supplement a child support order.

(6). Unbridled judicial discretion must be removed from alimony statutes.

(7). The judiciary is a constitutional mandate to protect citizens from the legislative and executive branches of government. Therefore, the adversarial aspect of alimony must be removed to eliminate the profit motive.

(8). Citizens seeking to dissolve their marriage are not victims of each other.